Sylvania



J. M. FITZ GERALD.

CONDUIT.

APPLICATION HLED um 15. 1911.

Patented June 10, 1919.

UNITEDSTATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN H. FITZGERALD, OF OAK PARK, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR T ASBESTOS PROTECTED METAL COMPANY, OF PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA, A CORPORATION OF I'ENN- SYLVANIA.

coupon.

Specification of Letters Patent. Patented June 10, 1919,

Application filed June 15, 1917. Serial No. 174,860.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, JOHN M. FITZGERALD, a citizen of the United States, and a'resident of Oak Park, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, haveinvented an Im- V provement in Conduits, of which the 01- lowing description, in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification,

like characters on the drawings representing 1 like parts.

7 This invention relates to a conduit of the character known as trunking and capping which is employed among other uses for signaling work on steam railway systems.

Conduits'of the character described are now commonly made of wood and comprise a trough-shaped loweror trunk member in which the insulated wires or conductors are laid, and a cap or cover member com;-

posed of a single strip or iece of wood ex; tended longitudinally of t e trunk member or of a plurality of short strips or pieces extended transversely of the trunk member and secured thereto by nails or other fastening devices;

Conduits of this construction are laid lengthwise of the steam railway tracks and have lat als or branches which extend transversgly of the track under the rails thereof, which latter are in most cases emplplyed as-part ofthe signaling system.

hese Wooden conduits afiord limited mechanical and electrical protection for the wires or conductors laid in them, but they are open to seriousobjections, one of which is the inaccessibility of the contents of the conduit, for when it is desired to lay new wires or conductors or replace old or defective wires, a-material length of time and laboris required to remove the cover, which is often dama ed in so doing.

Another ob ecti0n is the short life of the wooden conduit due to the action of the weather, assisted frequently by the wear and tear upon the cover by persons walking upon the same.

Still another objection is the liability of destruction by fire, caused in many cases by sparks and hot cinders from passing trains,

and destruction by fire is generally attended" by short circuiting or other derangement of the signaling system by the melting of the -to provide a conduit of the trunking and capping character, which aflords access to its contents substantially in an instant, with the least possible labor and expense and without impairing the usefulness of the conduit.

The invention further has for its object to provide a conduit of the desired accessibility, which aflords permanentirnechanical protection for the contents within thezconf duit, which is fire and weather ng ing, and electrically insulating, which iso "minimum Weight yet strong, which can be placed in operatlve position manually and without requiring machinery for this purpose, which can be assembled in a minimum time and with a minimum of labor without the use of nailsor other fastening devices.

To this end the conduit is provided with a substantially trough-shaped trunk member having side walls, and with a substantially trough-shaped cap member having side walls, said cap member cooperating with the trunk member to close the latter I at its top and have the side walls of one member extended into the other member between the side walls of the latter member. The substantially trough-shaped trunk and cap members may be made of sheet metal or other suitable material and proyided' with one'or more layers of rotective material, and. it may be preferre to make said members of sheet metal provided with layers of asbestos paper adhesively attached to the metal by bituminous cement and covered on their exterior by a protective coating.

It is preferred to make the cap and trunk members of such relative size as to obtain frictional engagement of the side walls of said members and thereby obtain an efiective weather-tight joint between the protectivecoatings on said side walls, and it is also preferred to provide said side walls These and other features of this invention will be pointed out in the claims at the end of this specification. I

Figure 1 represents a sufiicient portion of a railway system provided w th a conduit system embodying this invention, to enable the latter to be understood.

Fig. 2, a side elevation of a portion of the conduit shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 3, a detail in section of the conduit having opposing branches.

ig. 4, a cross section on an enlarged scale of the conduit shown in Fig.1.

Fig. 5, an enlarged cross-section on the line 55, Fig. 2, and Fig. 6, a detail of the protected metal preferred by me.

Referring to the drawing, a, b, represents the tracks of a steam railway system provlded with a s1gnal1ng system, represented by the wires or electric conductors c, which are contained in a conduit of the trunking and capping character and which is herein shown as composed of a main line conduit d provided with laterals or branches 6, which extend under the rails of the tracks a, b.

The mam line and the branch conduits are of like construction, and consist of a' 16. The cap member 12 is preferably made of sufficient width to fit over upon the up right side walls .14 and have its top wall 15 rest thereon, and also have its side walls 16 frictionally engaged with the side walls 14.

The main line conduit 03 is composed of a plurality of sections of cap and trunk members 12, 10, which are arranged so that the sections of the cap member break joints with the sections of the trunk member as clearly represented in Fig. 2.

In practice, the trunk sections are designed to rest upon and be secured to suitable supports, which are spaced apart at intervals, preferably about five feet. The support referred to may be of any suitable construction or material, but it is preferred to make them as represented in Fig. 5, wherein 20 represents a metal chair or plate, provided with a center rod or pipe 21, which is extended into a concrete base or support 22. The chair 20 may and preferably will he provided with side uprights or flanges 23. The sections of the trunk member 10 are laid in the chairs 20 and may be fastened thereto by suitable devices, such as wire nails or rods 24, which are passed down through holes in the bottom of the trunk member and through the chair and have their projccting ends fastened against displacement placed over the trunk member as represented in Fig. 1, with the ends of the individual cap sections on opposite sides of the chair on which the abutting ends of two adjacent trunk sections rest, so that the joint formed by said ends is covered by a solid part of the cap member, as clearly shown in Fig. 2.

The ends of adjacent cap sections. may

abut if desired, but it may be preferred to leave a slight space between them as represented in Fig. 2, and to cover said space by a saddle or strap 25, which is secured to the chair 20 by bolts 26 or otherwise.

The saddles or straps 25 serve as removable,clamps to firmly secure the conduit to its support and hold it in place. The space between the cap sections affords opportunity for the insertion of a hook or other device under the end of acap section, when it is desired to remove the latter from the trunk member to gain access to the interior of the conduit.

When the cap section is to be removed as described, the saddle or strap 25 is first removed so as to uncover. the space between adjacent cap sections.

In this way, access to the interior of ilv conduit may be had in a minimum time and with minimum labor and without injuring or impairing the usefulness of the cap member.

The cap member may be automatically locked to the trunk member by providing beads 27 in the side walls of the cap member which engage corresponding beads 28 in the side walls of the trunk member.

The beads 27 in the cap member are capable of being manually withdrawn from the beads in the trunk member.

The trunk member is designed to have the electric conductors or wires 0 laid in it, as practised with the wooden conduits now commonly employed on steam railway systerms.

The substantially trough-shaped cap and trunk members may be made of any sultable material, but it is preferred to make them of sheet metal and to provide the latter with protective coatings, and as represented in Figs. 4; and 6, the sheet metal element of the trunk member comprises the bottom 13 and side walls 14, and is represented as provided on its inner and outer surfaces with a coating of a bituminous composition, represented by the heavy black lines 30, which serves to protect the sheet metal element and also serves as an adhesive for layers 32, of fibrous material, preferably asbestos paper, wool felt, mineral wool and the like, which are also protected by coatings 34 of suitable weather-resisting material. The sheet metal element of the cap member comprises the top 15 and side walls 16, and is protected by the coating 30, fibrous layers 32, and coating 34.

The branches or laterals e from the main line conduit (1 may be made of one or more sections, according to the length of the lateral. and extend under one and often under othrails of the track.

It is preferred to make the cap and trunk members of protected metal, as by so doing the signal wires 0 are given maximum protection. inasmuch as the metal elements of the cap and trunk members afiord permanent mechanical protection. and thelayers 30, 32, 34, a fiord protection against the weather, lire. gases and fumes, and also serve to in sulate the contents of the conduit."

It is not desired to limit the invention to the use of the conduit for electric signaling vsystems, as it may be used to advantage for other purposes, both for exterior and interior \vorl Claims.

1. A conduit of the character described, comprising a sheet metal trunk member having a bottom wall and side walls and provided with a tire and weather resisting protective. coating on their exterior and interior surfaces, and a sheet metal cap member having a top wall and side walls and provided vwnh a lire and weather resisting protective coating on their exterior and interior surfaces. said cap having the protective coating on one surface f its side walls frictionally engaged with the protective coating on one surface of the side walls of said trunk member to make a weather-tight joint between said side walls.

A conduit of the character described, comprising a substantially trough-shaped trunk member having a bottom wall and side walls extended therefrom and composed of sheet metal and fire and weather-resisting layers adhesively afiixed to the inner and outer surfaces of said sheet metal, and a substantially trough-shaped cap member having a top wall and side Walls extended therefrom and composed of sheet metal and layers of tire and weather-resisting layers adhesively aflixed to the imler and outer surfaces'oi the sheet metal of said cap member, said cap member cooperating with said trunk member to close the latter at its top and have the fire and weather-resisting layers of the side walls of said members in contactto form weather-tight joints between said side walls.

3. A conduit of; the character described, comprising a substantially trough-shaped trunk member composed of a sheet metal element, layers of tire-resisting fibrous material adhesively lixed to the inner and outer surfaces of 5 id metal element and a weather-resistingj 'otective coatin on the exterior of said fibrous layers, an a substantially trough-shaped cap member cooperating with the said trunk member to close the latter at its top and composed of a sheet metal element, layers of fire-resisting fibrous material adhesively afiixed to, the inner and outer surfaces of the last-mentioned metal element. and a wealher-resisting protective.

eoati ng on the exterior of said fibrous layers, 1,

the protective coating on the inner surfaces of the side walls of one member enga ing the protective coating on the outer sur acesv of the side walls of the other member to form a weather-tight joint between said side walls.

In testimony whereof, I have signed my name to'this specification.

JOHN M. FITZGERALD. 

